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Wednesday, April 6, 2011

GOLDEN PUCK PREDICTIONS

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will host their annual Golden Puck Awards Gala this evening at some hotel in downtown Montreal.

After an unreal regular season, the Saint John Sea Dogs will have plenty of chances to take home some hardware tonight. Jonathan Huberdeau is nominated for three awards while Simon Despres, Zack Phillips, and Nathan Beaulieu are all in contention as well. Head coach Gerard Gallant and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly are also included in the long list of nominees.

Goaltender Jacob DeSerres will be awarded Jaques Plante Trophy for the league’s best goals against average.

Saint John did quite well at the awards show last year with Mike Hoffman being named the league’s Most Valuable Player and Gallant winning Coach of the Year.

Like in the past, the coverage of the event will likely be poor. But in a shocking turn of events, the QMJHL Twitter page is expected to post updates and pictures.

Prediction: Jonathan Huberdeau - led the top-ranked team in Canada in scoring basically all season long. He led the team in assists. He led the team in goals. He was a league best plus-59. He did all this at age 17 under the pressure of playing in front of dozens of scouts each game. He is the QMJHL’s MVP.

Prediction: Charles Hudon - had an unreal rookie campaign with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. He had 23 goals and 37 assists and finished second in rookie scoring. He did this on an average Chicoutimi team that scored only scored 197 goals, one of only five teams to not score over 200 markers.

Prediction: Sean Couturier – despite all the talk about Jonathan Huberdeau possibly overtaking Couturier as the top prospect from the QMJHL, there are still plenty of agencies that have Couturier going ahead of the Sea Dogs forward. 96 points in just 58 games isn’t too shabby either.

Prediction: Gerard Gallant – ‘Turk’ won the award last year as well and is just as deserving this season. Sure he has ultra-talented players to work with, but he is faced with the task of keeping a handful of high NHL draft eligible players focused on playing a team game and not as individuals. Gallant has certainly done that.

Prediction: Mike Kelly – made some good trades at the deadline, most noticeably Eric Gelinas and Alexandre Beauregard. He also picked up Jacob DeSerres from the WHL. Kelly has helped make this team a contender last year, this year, and next year.